A Greater Manchester company faces accusations it ‘forged nine signatures'

A Greater Manchester woman claims a government-linked training company has ‘forged her signature nine times' to falsely indicate she attended several of their courses.

The woman, who asked to stay anonymous, claims she was entered into an adult numeracy training programme called ‘Multiply’, which is a Department for Education initiative, despite never asking or agreeing to do so. The course was delivered by Dragon Football Academy Ltd (Dragon), registered on Bird Hall Lane in Cheadle Heath.

Dragon had been tasked with delivering Multiply, which is a free-to-take adult education numeracy qualification open to anyone over-19 without a maths GCSE, after the government department passed funding to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to run the courses on-the-ground. The GMCA then tasked Manchester-based social enterprise The Growth Company with sub-contracting out the delivery of Multiply contracts — with Dragon being one.

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The Growth Company has now confirmed it ‘voluntarily ended the contract’ with Dragon in early July, but did not specify why it took the decision.

The woman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she complained to the Growth Company, GMCA, and Department for Education — alleging her signature was used on paperwork, claiming she had completed the Multiply course delivered by Dragon.

“In March, I got a letter from a company doing research for the Multiply programme, asking me to fill in a questionnaire,” she explained. “[Dragon] had claimed against me for a maths proficiency training programme. The Department for Education did confirm to me they had signed paperwork saying I did three